Hope
This is a world of science but the science works a little differently here than it does on Earth. It is a little more flexible than would normally be expected. There are technologies that are ineffective on Earth that just work better here and theories that just can’t get off the ground over there which blossom into wondrous reality here. Last Hope gained its name because its discovery came only a decade after human scientists declared that Faster Than Light travel was a real impossibility. Instead they found a way to cross through inter-dimensional space to find other universes whose laws behaved in an unpredictable fashion. Some of those shuttles never returned -- perhaps because those universes were inimical to human life or perhaps because technology just couldn’t work there. When they eventually found a habitable world they officially called “Hope” and unofficially called “Last Hope” because it was humanity’s last hope to explore and colonise a world filled with life. Due to higher background radiation and a multitude of foreign diseases, human colonists either had to survive on a diet of medication and hide from the great outdoors or were bio-engineered with a nanite gland that could help repair the damage. For over a century they imported more colonists until they reached a population of 67 million inhabitants before something went terribly wrong. An unknown event called the Incident led to a tearing in the fabric of reality itself and allowed an interdimensional body, known as the Writhing One, to be seen in the sky for precisely 4.79 hours (aka 4 hours 47 minutes and 24 seconds). The colonists, desperate to save Earth, shut down all conduits between their worlds and set their satellites to destroy any incoming shuttles so that their world could remain in quarantine. Those who saw the Writhing One, glimpsing it in the skies or even studying instruments that studied it, went insane - injuring themselves and others in a horrific manner. When their bodies fell, the nanites raced to repair the damage but they could not repair damage done to the cerebral cortex by both the Writhing One and the injuries they had sustained. When their bodies rose, they were different. They were cunning, primal and terribly hungry. They roamed in packs of three to a dozen and would not harm each other but would hunt down wastelanders, in particular, with a single-minded devotion. They were also capable of rapidly regenerating damage to their bodies. Over time they developed new strains -- each more cunning and resourceful than the last. The military were largely wiped out, but enough remained to take control of the robotics factory, pumping out basic robots who would kill anyone not implanted with a special beacon implanted beneath the skin (AI not being sufficiently advanced to tell the difference between a wastelander and a Zed-Synth on sight). Unfortunately the fact the disease was infectious meant that eventually some of those who had been implanted succumbed to the infection. One of the robot factories sent out a programming update so that the robots would slay anyone -- regardless of beacon. In their last transmission, they apologised and stated they would reverse their decision once their factory was clear of Zeds but they never did. That was just over seventy years ago. People have rebuilt since then but civilisation is still small, spread out and under siege. The survivors are genetically engineered to be better at surviving, but with increased metabolic rates, high adrenaline responses and a more aggressive (though not necessarily violent). The main difference between a human and a wastelander is their nanite gland. Hope is a deadly world these days. approach to life. Their nanite gland also allows them to survive a higher level of background radiation such as that found on Last Hope without taking special medication. This has no effect on areas of exceedingly high radiation (i.e. where there are radiation indicators). Nowadays there are a number of important locations on Hope that have sprung up since the Incident. Category:Locations